Do You Have To Cut Thin Ends Off While You Grow Out Your Hair?

I had never seen such beautiful hair on a real live person. Sure there were models in magazines with sewn in, photoshopped tresses, but she was an everyday person just like me and she had resuscitated her hair to the point where she deserved her own cover!

Years of brainwashing had taught me that those results were too good to be true. She had to have good genes. It was an anomaly. But the before pictures were so drastically different that maybe it had to be something else.

Then I found another person, then another, then another until the myth was busted. That person could actually be me one day. I could have healthy, gorgeous hair.

Many a healthy hair journey has been sparked this way. One person decides that it is time to make a hair change and begin on their journey. Then they decide to share it with the world knowing that this could be a source of inspiration.

We see amazing before and after pictures and something stirs within us. “If she can do it then so can I!” You could be adopting a healthy hair regimen for the first time. You could be transitioning. Whatever it is, the motivation for it all is beautiful hair in the end.

For those of us who have taken those first steps we learn, sometimes the hard way, that as common as positive results are they are not always as simple to achieve.

While we are motivated by the results of others, their techniques often get adopted as rules and when something unexpected comes along we are quick to deem it as failure. One of these “failures” many of us face are thin ends.

Thin Ends The Deal-breaker?

Whether transitioning from one state of hair to another or just adopting better hair practices you will notice a difference between your hair as it grows and your ends.

Oftentimes your ends will look thin and dull in comparison to your new, healthy hair. A lot of women feel the need to cut these ends off as if leaving them there is somehow unhealthy. This may not always be the case.

So When Encountering Thin Ends What Should You Do?

First, make sure that they are not damaged. Thin ends can be caused by a number of factors including being split. If you are trying to avoid cutting your hair, but have damaged ends unfortunately the best step would be to reach for your scissors.

Why? In the case of split ends, it is very likely that the damage will travel up your hair shaft, meaning you will end up with bigger splits and more hair to cut off. It is best to nip them in the bud as soon as possible to prevent more damage in the future. Your hair will thank you.

If your ends are thin for reasons other than damage, perhaps just breakage over time reducing the thickness of hair in the area,  the choice is up to you.

Mini trims along your journey will suffice until all of your thin ends are gone. Your hair will stay the same length because you are cutting as it grows and there is no harm in doing this.

Your hair may also look uneven but chances are that you have been protective styling as part of your new healthy regime so this shouldn’t matter too much either if the ends are not always on show. This is a much more patient way of handling them.

You could go the other route and decide to cut them off completely. This is a much bigger and bolder step. For transitioning ladies this is called a big chop.

The plus to this is that you’re really starting fresh and with thick full ends. Your hair will be even and you can really retain your new length without worrying about getting rid of your old ends.

For women who are transitioning and debating the big chop, one of the most prominent benefits is not having to deal with two different textures. This can be difficult to manage especially for hair journey beginners.

Despite this, it is still possible to forgo cutting off your ends in favor of a more slow and steady process aka a long term transition.

Your decision will probably boil down to this one question: Do you want results now or do you want them later? Either way, healthy hair journeys are filled with so many different opportunities to learn about your health and each decision will teach you something different about how you should maintain it.

Learning to manage different textures will show you how to give your hair the extra TLC that is sometimes needs. Cutting your ends off completely will get you started on learning your new hair texture right away.

The point of emphasis is that as long as there is no damage to the thin ends there is no particular requirement to cut them off except just wanting thicker ends.

The notion that there is a “right way” or a “wrong way” to handle your hair on your hair journey is one that should be scrapped. There is no rule book except for the one that you write for your own hair. What will your story look like?